Today is bottle shipping day for the beers that will be judged at the
GABF. In years past, I would bottle condition my Belgian style ales and
bottle the rest of the beers on a counter pressure Meheen bottling line.
This year, because I do not have a bottling machine I decided to bottle
condition all of my beers. I'm not worried about the four Belgian style
ales I'm entering; they are only getting better with age. In fact, the
Temptation has been in wine barrel with 3 kinds of brettanomyces for 13
months now.

The three main line beers I am entering this year are not
as fresh as they would normally be. In fact the Pliny the Elder was
bottled back in the middle of June. First I thought this may be a
problem for the Pliny, but I'm drinking one right now (9:30 a.m. PST) and
it is still bitter as hell! The age may help in fact, because in previous years
the judges' comments that come back after the festival all said the beer
was to bitter. They must have been East Coast brewers judging the
category (jab, jab, hee, hee, hee, Lupulin Slam...). With a new
category this year for Double/Imperial IPA, maybe things will be
different, and judges may just appreciate the high bitterness of the
beer?

Either way, I do not look at the 2003 GABF as a year where I may
win an award, and in truth I go into each GABF thinking I'm not going to
win anything, but the 2003 GABF is more of a marketing opportunity for
Natalie and I to promote our new brewpub and let the consumer know that
we own the brewery now.